In recent years, energy management systems (EMS) that manage energy consumption of equipment have attracted public attention. Examples of such energy management systems include a home energy management system (HEMS), a building energy management system (BEMS), a factory energy management system (FEMS), and a store energy management system (SEMS).
A technique for scheduling maintenance of equipment in accordance with the operational situations of the equipment has been proposed. Specifically, the maintenance is scheduled by avoiding a peak period of operation of the equipment (see, e.g., Patent Literature 1).
Multiple pieces of equipment may operate by cooperating with each other to achieve a desired operation result. Air conditioning equipment, for example, may include multiple pieces of equipment which cooperate with each other to achieve a desired room temperature.
However, a desired operation result may not be achieved if any one of the multiple pieces of equipment is stopped due to maintenance, malfunction, or the like, and the normal operation mode is still continued.